What is "steering" and how can you get away with it?
I guess we all have our favorites, our favorite children if we have more than one (or if we like our friend's kid more than we like our own), our favorite restaurants, kinds of foods, schools, style of homes and on and on and on....
A deep thinker I follow says, "The contrast of what you don't like, helps you to know what you do like and what choices to make that will bring you (us) more happiness..." or something like that. I take that to mean that sometimes we make a decision and walk away saying, "I'll never do that again..." or " I should have ...." or "Next time, I'll choose....."The key here is that this is personal when it comes to choice.
Lately, I've been hearing many realtors "dissing" a certain neighborhood talking about the crime, the people who live in this particular neighborhood, making jokes about buying drugs and rampant prostitution.... The shame here is that many of these people don't actually know what they are talking about unless they:
* live in this neighborhood....
* buy or have bought drugs in this neighborhood....
* have solicited prostitution in this neighborhood....
When I hear a Realtor talk about this particular neighborhood, which happens to be a very up and coming, gentrifying neighborhood, where many forward thinkers are buying, renovating and investing... I ask myself, "How is this not steering?" Are my fellow Realtors steering great families away from a neighborhood, based on some old ideas that they may have about this neighborhood. These Realtors may be steering their clients away from the best real estate investment they could ever make, based on pure snobbery.
Whenever I meet with buyers, either new or old, I sit down with them and listen to what their needs and wants are in a neighborhood, then I invite them to explore homes in the neighborhoods that meet all their criteria. I show them the websites for schools and crime statistics and tell them in no uncertain terms that I am an expert in contracts and negotiation, but not in matters of schools and crime. I have these buyers drive through the neighborhoods before we go and tour any potential homes to see how they feel while they are there.
The way I see it is... that this type of steering is purely gossip and the kind that hurts many, many people who live in these neighborhoods. I believe in the good of most people, I also understand that we can't generalize and say that some neighborhoods are more crime prone than others. I DON'T KNOW THAT!
So, fellow Realtors, please do you job, be fair and be careful not to steer to or away from neighborhoods, you might get away with it for a while, but everything you do today pays (or doesn't pay) you tomorrow and thereafter.
Note: all photos are from this site:
http://www.google.com/images?q=really+free+photos&rlz=1I7DLUS_en&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=iCx0TN_AF4i-sQOvveynCA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CB8QsAQwAA&biw=1419&bih=629
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